25 Summer 2014 Movies You Need to See

Though we’ve barely put away our parkas here in NYC, summer movie season is apparently underway, since there’s now a new Spider-Manmovie playing on basically every vertical surface in the country. It could be argued that “summer movie season” began a month ago, when Captain America: The Winter Solder came out, because Hollywood is stuck in a PERPETUAL COMIC BOOK TENTPOLE BLOCKBUSTER SUMMER, but I digress. Let’s not fight it; here’s our look at 25 of this summer’s most promising releases, big and small. Plan your vacations accordingly.

MAY

Chef (May 9)
Word from its (well-received) festival screenings is that the latest from writer/director/star Jon Favreau includes some not-exactly-subtle parallels to his filmmaking career: it concerns a chef who loses his creative fire while working at a big restaurant, and goes back to his roots by starting up a food truck. Kinda like how a filmmaker might lose himself in mega-budget flicks like Iron Man and Cowboys & Aliens, and try to find that voice again by doing a low-budget indie. For example.